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Topic Review (Newest First)

01-14-2005 01:08 PM

bluegillbob

I'm glad someone mentioned wooly buggers. Great subsurface lure! Works great for bluegills and crappies as well!

01-13-2005 10:22 AM

Dble Haul

Thanks for the detail. In place of mylar tubing, I might try this with a simple wire loop guard to keep the tail from wrapping around the hook bend.

Again, thanks.

01-13-2005 09:50 AM

Wildsmallie

Unfortunately I lack the technology to post photos, but the flies aren't that complicated. I use a heavy streamer hook (steelhead hooks work well) usually a #2 or 1/0. I tie it so the rabbit strip hangs about three inches past the hook bend, and hold the rabbit strip along the top of the fly by ribbing it with wire or heavy thread. For a body, chenille works as well as anything, but you can get fancy and use dubbing. Don't make the deer hair head too big, or you won't get it to fish under the surface. One final tip--figure a way to have the rabbit strip come off the hook bend encased in a 1" piece of EZ body or mylar tubing. This minimizes the rabbit strip wrapping around the hook bend.
Writing this makes me want to tie some. I think the temp outside is around 5 degrees. It will be a while before I get to use them!
Chris

01-13-2005 09:32 AM

Dble Haul

Chris, if you have any pictures of the rabbit strip muddlers I'd love to see them either here or in the warmwater archives. I'm pretty sure what they are, but a picture would confirm.

If possible, thanks.

01-13-2005 08:55 AM

Wildsmallie

I do a lot of flyrodding for largemouth and smallmouth. For a "popper" the fly I use for both is the same; a cork one that I make with a 9/16" face, tied about 3 1/2- 4" long. The color doesn't matter much, but I often use one with an orange head and a black tail. When largemouth are in heavy cover (pads) I like a version of a Dahlberg diver that I tie upside down on a 4/0 Daiichi 2481. The collar on the fly acts as a great weed guard. I usually use a long, wide rabbit strip for the tail on this fly. For high riding subsurface, I use Deceivers (mostly natural colors) and rabbit strip muddlers in natural or black. Tie both about 4" long. For bottom bouncing, I have a couple of things with lead eyes that I use. One is a lead eye zonker (white or brown), and the other is a "clousery" thing tied with extra select craft hair instead of bucktail.
I made a couple of DVDs on Largemouth fishing and tying last year. They are titled "Flyfishing for Largemouth Bass, Vol. 1" and "Fly Tying for Largemouth Bass". The tying DVD shows how to make cork poppers and inverted divers. The distribution on them isn't great, but if you look hard you can find them.
Chris

01-13-2005 07:10 AM

teflon_jones

My votes would be:
1) A large clouser in chartreuse/white
2) A large olive/black woolly bugger
3) My bass special, which is tied like a black/olive woolly bugger (black hackle, olive/black mixed color chenille), but instead of marabou for the tail I use a 4" strip of rabbit fur.
4) A deer hair frog with white belly (the top doesn't matter since the fish can't see it!)
5) A large brown clouser (to simulate a crayfish or bottom feeding minnow)
6) A really big Hornberg streamer (the best streamer, actually the best thing period, I've ever used for pond/lake fishing)

01-12-2005 06:47 PM

smurf

Hi I live in Portland Oregon and fish for bass all the time, especially smallmouths. for them i like brown and white clousers along with chartruese and white, crayfish pattern, fox nymph, decievers, and yellow or green poppers.

the john day is unreal. and if you live close to portland the mouth of the mollala river is almost as good.

pat

01-12-2005 01:47 PM

TheSeph

my six cents [pun intended]

'i see dead ppl' if u need help.......

6 flies in no particluar order:

1) hare jig/barry's pike fly or anything with a rabbit strip tail and some weight on the front to be fished slow with sinking line in colder weather
colors: if i had to pick one color it would be black with some estaz or sparkle near the head

5) DEER HAIR bass bug-- something with a white belly. I dont care too much about the part out of the water

6) the ubiquitous wooly bugger. I like to tie them with about 2x the length of marabou as the more traditional trout versions. Black, chart, redbody black hackle marabou, pink/bubblegum

06-02-2004 07:42 PM

tieflies

Great tip

Flytyer,
Thanks for the pattern location info and the great tip on installing the rubber legs. I'll have to make one of those custom installation tools

tieflies

06-02-2004 03:49 PM

flytyer

Tieflies,

"FLIES FOR BASS AND PANFISH" by Allen is one of several that have the recipes. Whitlock's book on bass is another one, as is the Cris Helm video on spinning deer hair. There are several good books on bass fishing with flies that have pattern recipes.

Pusher hackle refers to opposing pairs of neck hackle tied as a tail. The are tied in with the shiny side against each other so the hackle feathers flair outward a bit away from each other. Use one hackle feather of each color, stack them one on top of the other until all the colors are in the stack, place the two sets back to back (shiny sides together), and tied them in all at the same time. Then you add a collar of hackle or guinea (dyed or natural) the cover this rather bulky tie in area, followed by spinning and packing the deer hair.

The easiest way to add the rubber legs to a deer hair bug is after the body is trimmed. Take a large needle, heat the end you put the thread through with a cigarette lighter the open up the thread "eye" with a nail or a large bodkin (it needs to be opened up or the rubber leg material will not fit through it) to make what I call a "rubber leg installer tool".

To use the tool and add rubber legs to a deer hair bug, 1) push the needge through the clipped body until it is about 1/4" out the other side of the body;2) place a strand of rubber legs material into the eye of the tool (needle); 3) push and pull the needle until the rubber leg material strand starts to go into the clipped deer hair; 4) add some Flexament to the rubber leg strand just before it touches the body (this is too hold the rubber leg in place after it is positioned); 5) pull the rubber through the clipped body until it is centered in the body; and 6) trim (after they have all been installed) all the rubber legs so they dangle below the hood point 1/8" to 1/4". This is a far easier method for adding rubber legs to a deer hair bug than tying the rubber legs in as you spin the body because you don't have to worry about cutting the legs off as the body is being trimmed.

06-02-2004 10:57 AM

tieflies

Thanks Mark!

Hey thanks for the info! I'll set myself up to tie a few of each when I get some time..........

06-02-2004 08:05 AM

Dble Haul

For largemouth, I would have the following six fly types:

1. Clouser minnow for fishing deeper waters

2. A big featherwing streamer such as a deceiver or big eye baitfish

3. A deer hair popper

4. A hard bodied slider

5. A weedless snake fly or V-worm to fish like a plastic worm

6. A Dahlberg Diver type

Rather than give you several color combos of the same pattern and have them individually count as flies, I've given you fly types that will cover a broad range of fishing conditions when tied to match the local forage. For example, if crayfish are present a brown over orange clouser minnow is tough to beat. And if frogs aren't in a particular body of water, divers/sliders/poppers tied in bright or dark colors will cover daytime and low light conditions, respectively.

Have fun.

06-01-2004 10:35 PM

tieflies

I'll have to get out the map.

Sean,
I'll have to get out the map. Though I've heard a lot about the John Day, I don't know where it is. Not much of a traveler. YET.

Flytyer,

Would you know where I could get recipes and maybe a picture for these patterns?

I'm pretty good at figuring things out, but not without at least seeing the flies. I don't know what hackle pushers are.

Any help would be appreciated. I can do searchs if your unsure, so don't go to a lot of trouble, but if you know.......

Thanks guys...Trez

06-01-2004 10:08 PM

sean

Trez ,

By looking at your home waters you have one of the best smallmouth rivers in the country close by, the John Day.

-sean

06-01-2004 10:02 PM

flytyer

These are the six bass flies I would use anywhere in the country for largemouth bass: 1) deer hair frog; 2) yellow and black deer hair popper with yellow and black hackle pushers and collar/skirt that includes yellow rubber legs in the body; 3) red, black, and white deer hair popper with red, black, and white hackle pushers, guinea collar/skirt and red, black, and white rubber legs in the body; 4) a black or chartreuse Dahlberg Diver with a rabbit strip tail; 5) a chartreuse or purple Whitlock Serpent (chartreuse or purple dyed long and thin grizzly saddle hackle tail, body to match the tail, palmered with the same color hackle); and 6) bunny leech in black with a chartruese marabou undertail or purple bunny leech with a red or cerise marabou undertail.

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